


Cry for the Sun

by Vagrant_Blvrd



Series: Among the Stars [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:48:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29912343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vagrant_Blvrd/pseuds/Vagrant_Blvrd
Summary: Luke misses the feel of sand under his paws.
Relationships: Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Among the Stars [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2199561
Comments: 8
Kudos: 84





	Cry for the Sun

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt fill for Demoncowedgar who wanted more werewolf shenanigans??? :D?
> 
> Companion fic to [Laugh at the Moon](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29750160) from Luke's POV that takes place before, during, and after that fic.

Luke misses the feel of sand under his paws.

========

The stormtroopers below the cliff he’s watching them from continues about their business, oblivious to his presence. Beside him, Han inches forward to get a better view, the sound of dirt and small stones shifting under his weight loud in the silence between them.

Chewie tilts his head, asks a question that has Han shaking his head, mouth turned down. “There’s no way we’re getting close to them without one of them setting off an alarm,” he mutters. “And when that happens, the star destroyer in orbit going to send more of the bastards to see what’s going on.”

Luke raises an eyebrow at that.

“Han,” he says, “did you forget why I’m here?”

The Rebel Alliance knows what he is, and while there are mixed feelings about that – there always are, Luke knows – they didn’t waste any time exploiting it, him, either. Not that he puts up much of a fight of it when they select him for the riskier missions, the kind where anyone else would never make it back, but Han and the others seem to have taken it upon themselves to do that for him.

It’s touching, really, that they do. That they don’t look at him any differently now they know, but.

His kind can handle it. 

Accelerated healing, and he’s faster, stronger in either form, and equally dangerous.

He doesn’t know how his kind came about, too much lost to time and history, but he knows what they’re good at.

Han turns his head to look at Luke, something dark in his eyes. “No, Kid,” he says. “I didn’t.”

He still doesn’t like it, the way the Alliance uses Luke as a weapon, don’t seem to care how much it takes out of him going on missions like this one. Chewie’s not a fan either, comes closest to knowing what it’s like for Luke.

Luke smiles, teeth a little longer, sharper than they should be even before a shift. Small things that give what he is away if people know what to look for.

“I’ll have you two watching my back, right?” he asks, even though they all know the answer. “It’ll be fine.”

========

Luke misses the feel of sand under his paws, it’s true, but he’s well acquainted with dirt and rock and stone under them. 

Creeps through the underbrush to reach the clearing where the stormtroopers are standing guard over a weapons shipment awaiting transport to a base some twenty miles from where they are. He can hear the driver complaining while he attempts to fix the transport.

They’ve been stuck here for a couple of hours by now. 

Tired. Hot. Bored.

This planet’s largest predators are the size of a Loth-cat, and nocturnal. As far as the Empire’s concerned, the Alliance doesn’t even know this planet exists.

They’re not expecting opposition of any kind, but the officer in charge has them patrolling the perimeter in pairs. Intent on using the situation as a training exercise or possibly a punishment, given the grumbling from the stormtroopers who pass by Luke without noticing him.

It was supposed to be a simple enough mission. Get in, blow the base and then get back out again, nothing to it. But the base is heavily guarded, anything coming in by air would be shot down in moments, and the area outside the base is mined.

Guards on the walls, and droids roaming the surrounding woods.

Risky for anyone the Alliance would send in, but Luke has a unique edge others lack, and anyway, he heals fast.

But when they started towards the base they’d stumbled on this transport, and plans changed.

These are weapons the Alliance could use, ready for the taking, and as Han had said with a shrug and crooked grin, the _Falcon_ ’s carried worse cargo than this before.

So.

A little bonus for them if they pull this off right, get the weapons loaded up on the _Falcon_ before continuing with their mission. Nice and simple.

========

Luke hates the feel of stormtrooper armor between under his teeth, something about it _wrongwrongwrong_ and different from anything else he’s encountered. 

It breaks, though, cracks under the pressure of his jaws, easy as anything. Gives way to flesh and bone and human fragility.

The stormtrooper yells, high and terrified at coming face-to-face to a living nightmare out of the forest’s gloom. Raises a blaster too slow, far too slow, and Luke’s weight brings him to the ground, jaws at his neck and the sound of bone breaking before he shudders and goes still.

Luke shakes blood from his muzzle as he melts into the forest, Imperials yelling and reeking of fear, panic, and continues his hunt.

========

Luke growls at the vibroblade in his shoulder, blade in deep at an angle he can’t reach with his teeth and his paws too clumsy to manage. Can’t shift like this, chance of doing worse damage to himself more than he’s willing to risk with the mission unfinished.

He heals fast, yes, but the blood-loss would slow him too much, put Han and Chewie in danger and he -

“Luke,” he hears, quiet, careful, and looks up to see Han approaching, Chewie at his shoulder.

Han’s looking at him, at Luke, rather than the bloody bodies strewn around him, across the clearing. Hands held out like he doesn’t want to spook Luke, startle him. Like he’s a wild animal.

Which.

Luke tried to explain it to him, once, what it’s like when Luke shifts. The way the world goes smooth and calm and makes sense in all the ways it doesn’t when he’s human-shaped. 

Simpler, in a way.

He doesn’t lose himself when he’s like this, but he doesn’t think about things the same way. Instincts and his senses guide him more often than not, but he’s not an unthinking beast either. Han seemed to understand, at least enough that he still treated Luke the same the times Luke shifted around him, but he’s never seen Luke like this.

So.

Luke snorts, and gets to his feet, ignoring the way the vibroblade shifts in his shoulder, bright spike of pain and the feel of blood soaking into his fur.

Han stops. Cocks his head as he looks at Luke. The expression on his face is...complicated.

Anger, Luke understands. Knows how Han feels about the Alliance using Luke for things like this. Worry – Luke understands that too, in all its facets. Sadness, though, he doesn’t know what to do with. Not like this.

“Hey, buddy,” Han says as Luke stops in front of him because it’s Han and he helps. “Let’s get that taken care of, huh?”

========

Luke sees Leia’s shift for the first time on Endor.

He’d known she was like him even before discovering they were twins, but she didn’t seem to. She never said anything about it anyway, and he’d let it be. Figured she was another like him who didn’t want to acknowledge it for whatever reason.

But then Endor and everything that happened, and -

Luke runs.

When everything in his head is too much to handle, when he needs not to think. Finds somewhere quiet, safe, and runs.

The Ewoks know what he is, are the only people he’s met in years who aren’t afraid of him.

So Luke runs, and between one breath and the next there’s a dark-furred wolf keeping pace with him.

Leia’s eyes and her grin, smirk, really, and a challenge in the way she bumps her shoulder against his, snaps her teeth, and darts ahead.

Luke throws his head back and howls, heart singing at the answering howl ahead of him.

========

“I don’t like this,” Din says, and he smells of worry and frustration. He’s staring at the shock collar in his hands, something dark and aching weaving its way into his scent as he looks up at Luke. “You’re sure?”

There’s a magistrate who enjoys fights, loves watching living creatures fighting to the death for his enjoyment. 

He has something they want. 

Someone.

The magistrate knows to look for Din, paranoid and rightly so. Even Luke’s heard of a Mandalorian in full beskar who is notoriously hard to kill. 

Someone like that might have survived an ambush in the dark of night that left the ground broken and shattered and forest burning until dawn.

This, though? 

Din in a disguise borrowed from hunters looking to bring the magistrate new fighting animals, a shock collar taken from their ship Luke dropped into Din's hands himself. _Luke_.

Large, rangy wolf with tawny fur and something to him that hits as different, _other_. People naturally wary of him in this form. 

A hunter down on his luck bringing the magistrate a new fighting animal has the potential to provide them with new opportunities.

Luke butts his head against Din’s chest in answer. He trusts him, and Din knows it. Should know it after all this time, and yet.

(Fear making a home in Luke’s own chest for the secret he keeps and the trust Din shows him, an unthinking beast. Never, Luke knows, for the man he is under fur and fang and claw.)

“Idiot,” Din says on a sigh, hugging Luke’s head to him, fingers sinking into his ruff. 

========

Their plan works, in a way.

Din is greeted warmly once the magistrate sees the wolf he drags in. Sees it snap and snarl, lunge at the people crowded around to see.

Laughter rises high and mocking, cruel, when the bounty hunter activates the shock collar around the wolf’s neck to bring it to heel, a yelp of pain and smell of singed fur.

Luke is led away to the cages as Din is taken to meet with the magistrate.

========

Things go wrong. 

They always do.

========

Luke’s snarl echoes in the sudden silence following the magistrate’s mocking monologue. By his throne is a cage made of precious metal that glimmers in the light.

Grogu’s small hands are wrapped around the bars, staring at Din on his knees in front of the magistrate, helmet tossed aside.

There’s fury building in Luke’s chest as he keeps his gaze averted now, as he always has when Din’s face is uncovered around him. A fury that has nothing to do with the Jedi way and everything to do with what Luke is at his core.

Something old, ancient, from a time before anything Jedi breathed its first and independent of its doctrines.

_“Nothing living has seen my face.”_

Din said that once, speaking to the Child, to Grogu, as he haltingly explained the only exceptions his people allowed, and why Grogu was his.

Unaware of what Luke was, is, Luke intends for that to remain as true now as it was then.

Fur and fang and claw, and Luke is built for this.

Faster, stronger in this form, and always, always dangerous.

========

Luke is being hunted.

Footsteps in the darkness, click of nails on metal and a strange rasping noise that fills him with dread.

The Force is no use to him here, surrounds him with a feeling of calm, serenity, at odds with his current predicament.

The air is filled with scents, machine oil and grease, odds and ends of a working starship. Din’s scent, old, faded from when he was last through here. Others who have traveled with them, blending into the familiar that usually sets his mind at ease.

A noise to his left jerks him around, high squeal and the sound of running feet – and Luke is met with a small form launching itself at him with another squeal and something grabbing hold of the fur at his throat.

He backpedals, but it’s too late, claws digging in and more of that strange rasping noise - 

“What the hell are you two doing in here?”

The lights snap on and Luke goes still as Din climbs down the ladder to the lower deck of the _Crest_.

He levels an unimpressed look at Luke and his little passenger.

“I thought you were supposed to be sleeping,” he says to Grogu, still hanging from Luke’s neck, all innocence as though he’s never done a thing wrong in his life. “And _you_.”

Luke winces, ears drooping because Din’s _I’m not angry, just disappointed_ voice is a powerful weapon he doesn’t pull out often.

Grogu pats Luke’s neck in sympathy, best partner in crime Luke’s ever had, and turns his head to chatter up at Din, plead Luke’s case for him.

And, as always, even Din is no match for Grogu.

His sigh is familiar as anything, tired and amused and just a bit baffled at the turn his life’s taken.

“Fine,” he says, and steps closer to pluck Grogu from where he’s clinging to Luke like a burr. When Grogu refuses to be moved, Din looks at Luke, and sighs again. 

Grogu giggles, the rasping noise from earlier, and climbs and wriggles until he’s seated on Luke’s back. Luke can see his satisfied grin in the reflection in Din’s helmet.

========

Mandalore is the first time Luke feels sand under his paws in years.

It’s different from Tatooine in more ways than the obvious.

Tatooine always felt ancient. A million and more stories lost to time, forgotten and buried under its sand.

Mandalore feels like a wound that hasn’t healed right. Aching and fever-bright and in need of relief.

========

The Armorer knows what he is.

And yet she says nothing.

========

 _Paz_ knows what he is.

“I’m looking to decorate my armor,” he says, vibroblade in hand and smirk in his voice. “Fur, perhaps? Something in a light color.”

Luke snaps at him in warning, teeth bared, and Paz laughs as he hides the vibroblade away.

He taunts and teases Luke, but like the Armorer, he keeps Luke’s secret.

========

The assassins strike at night.

Luke drops Grogu into Leia’s care and takes off, shifting on the run. 

Faster in this form, stronger, and who would expect a wolf?

========

Assassins, for one, but they’re expecting an unthinking animal, and planned accordingly.

Luke avoids their traps, snares, with ease.

Squeezes in through the vents and drops down into the throne room where Din is holding two of them at bay with the Darksaber humming dark and deadly and hungry in his hands.

Luke catches the scent of fear spiking high and wild as he slams into the back of one, jaws closing on their neck. Blood blooms in his mouth, but he’s moving again before the body hits the floor. Momentum building, and a second goes down easily under his weight.

Pain flares in his side, vibroblade cutting into fur and flesh, and Luke’s jaws snap close around a neck, bones breaking.

And again and again, Luke ending up at Din’s back at one point, Mand’alor and wolf, equally dangerous, and then the fighting continues.

========

Luke’s too slow to reach the last assassin before she fires her weapon, hears Din’s pained cry and the sound of him falling, but he’s fast enough to stop her before she can finish the job.

========

“Oh,” Din says, breathing broken, uneven. “You know this isn’t the strangest thing I’ve seen?” 

Luke laughs at Din’s words, vision blurring as he works to keep him from dying, blood spilling from his wound and movements growing weaker.

========

It’s been a long time since Luke’s been in his human form for so long.

Feels wrong, in a way.

But Leia’s right in that he can’t keep hiding, nice as it was traveling with Din and Grogu. Letting life happen to him rather than trying to make sense of it himself, change it to suit him.

He tenses at sound of footsteps behind him. The tired sigh tinged with pain as someone sits beside him.

“I was telling you the truth,” Din says, slowly, carefully. “I’ve seen stranger things in my life.”

Luke glances at him from the corner of his eye, can’t help the smile that tugs at his lips at the sight of him.

“Really?” he asks, unable to help that either. “Really.”

Din laughs, a quiet huff of breath, and leans towards Luke.

“There was this time…”

========

“Luke,” Luke says, long after Din’s run out of stories to tell Luke of the strange things he’s seen. Stranger than a werewolf who became a Jedi, and he thinks he can understand why something like that wouldn’t seem that odd in comparison. “My name is Luke.”

========

There’s an attack on a meeting Leia’s attending on a world looking to join the New Republic.

Luke’s there as part of the security detail, Din is there as the Mand’alor.

Luke intercepts Din before he can charge into the hall where the attack is taking place, stops him with a hand on his chest.

“It’s fine,” he says, and smiles. Teeth a little longer, sharper than they should be even before a shift. Small things that give what he is away if people know what to look for. Things he shares with Leia. “Leia can handle it.”

Din tilts his head just so, curious but trusting in Luke, and Luke waves a hand at a security monitor.

On it they can see the meeting hall, delegates and their staff huddled together. Assassins focused on the threat in their midst, a blur of dark fur and flashing fangs and Luke battles down the snarl that threatens to break through at the sight.

Leia doesn’t shift as often as Luke does, more dangerous out of shift than any of their kind Luke’s encountered, but when she does - 

“Huh,” Din says, as though it never occurred to him that Leia would share this with him as well as being Force-sensitive.

“It’s genetic,” Luke says, and shrugs. On the security monitor Leia leaps for the throat of one of the assassins. “Our father’s side.”

He can feel Din watching him, thinking.

“It's still not the strangest thing I’ve seen,” Din says, so matter-of-fact about it Luke can’t help but laugh.

========

Mandalore is healing, slowly, so slowly, but it _is_ healing.

Luke has sand under his paws again, and it feels like home in a way Tatooine never did.

His ears prick forward at the sound of Din’s voice, Grogu’s raspy giggling a moment later, and takes off at a run towards them.

 _Family_ , he thinks, like Leia and Han and so many others in his life now, _pack_.


End file.
